Monday, September 5, 2011

first there are the evocative images, playing in the clear, with slightly ominous sound design...

ding.

a haunting lullaby is born. it slowly pulls us into this Victorian home where a sinister energy threads its way through the halls, the toys, even the three little girls...

ding.

a young girl's voice seeps into the air, and her dark rhyme tells the tale of a house and a marsh and a curse...

new toys contribute to the tune, and a discordant series of notes builds to a rise, punctuated by drum hits...

ding.

and then the girl's story is over.

there's not a single dialogue exchange in the whole trailer. we never even hear any sound from the shots we're seeing -- not the flames licking the walls, not the woman's cries, not Daniel Radcliffe's screams. everything is swallowed up by this eerie lullaby.

we close the way we started, and we end up back in black.

they're calling it a "teaser" trailer, but i wish they wouldn't. why give away more of the film? this 90-second spot is already a pretty good indicator of what the movie-watching experience will be like. do you really need to have the FULL plot spoiled for you in order to make up your mind? and why spend upwards of $12 to watch a film when you've already seen all its best parts?